Floor mats have been used for years to provide a cushion for the person standing on the mat. However, fatigue can still result when a person stands on a mat for an extended period of time. Persons who work standing up most of the day, such as cashiers, assembly line operators, people in home or commercial kitchens and many others still experience fatigue after standing on a conventional mat for long periods of time. Often floor mats are provided with non-slip surfaces to lessen slippage and to thus promote safety.
Mats of resilient foam are known to reduce user fatigue. Unfortunately however, foam mats have the disadvantage of becoming brittle over time. Conventional foam mats lose their properties as air cells in the mat compress. Moreover, conventional foam mats collect moisture over time. This condition can promote the growth of bacteria and fungus. These undesirable characteristics result in foam mats becoming unsuitable for use as they become older.
A mat containing gel sandwiched between various cover layers may address these problems. For example, my U.S. Pat. No. 6,851,141 discloses a resilient mat, one embodiment of which includes a resilient gel inner layer surrounded by a support ring to which an upper cover member and a lower cover member are attached. However, manufacturing such gel-based mats can be difficult. For example, difficulties can be encountered in adhering the upper cover member to the lower cover member. Moreover, undesired wrinkling of the cover members may also be experienced during the manufacture of a gel-based mat. Undesired wrinkling or creasing may also occur when a gel-based mat is stored for shipping in a rolled-up position for an extended period of time and then later unrolled by the user prior to use.
What is needed is a method of manufacturing a gel-based mat that addresses one or more of the above described problems.